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TALLAHASSEE -- Mired in a spat between property owners, the business lobby and local governments, a Senate panel on Tuesday gutted a proposal once hailed as a major step to protect Florida's dying springs. In a series of amendments, the Senate Appropriations Committee struck out provisions of the bill which would have provided about $380 million a year to protecting Florida's most-endangered springs, prioritizing projects, and setting hard deadlines for when local governments and polluters needed to have plans in place to clean up the waterways. Senate sponsors Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, and David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, said the measure (SB 1576) still...

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TALLAHASSEE -- Mired in a spat between property owners, the business lobby and local governments, a Senate panel on Tuesday gutted a proposal once hailed as a major step to protect Florida's dying springs.
In a series of amendments, the...

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Legislature is poised to press ahead with its four-year push to dismantle state growth-management rules. The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a bill Thursday which exempts seven new counties and 20 cities from a regional...

TALLAHASSEE -- A plan to merge Central Florida's road-building agencies into one major tolling authority was amended Thursday by the state Senate to address the past pay-to-play culture tainting Orlando's expressway authority.
The bill, SB 230, would...

Northrop Grumman Corp. may be poised to at least double its previously announced expansion in Melbourne, a move that could mean $500 million in capital investment and a total of 1,800 jobs in aircraft design work, according to published reports Wednesday....

The deadline for the public to nominate outstanding Lake County women to be considered for induction into the Lake County Women’s Hall of Fame is Friday, Aug. 15.
Nominees must have made significant contributions to the improvement of life for citizens...

On May 12, 1996, Miami police raided the home of Richard Brown on a false tip that the 73-year-old retiree with no criminal record was selling drugs. After busting the door open, police claim that Richards began firing a gun, prompting officers to pump...

Oxford Road in Fern Park is not one of Seminole County's prettiest streets.
The sidewalks are cracked and broken. The landscaping is either bare or filled with weeds. And empty parking lots are littered with liquor bottles, beer cans and other...

Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer on Wednesday introduced an ordinance that would relax the strictest ban on Sunday liquor sales in Central Florida.
Orange County's second-largest city is the only community in Central Florida that forbids the sale of beer,...

Car-audio systems manufacturer VOXX International Corp. is considering a $17 million expansion of its presence in Orlando with the potential of nearly $1.4 million in state and local incentives, Orange County officials said Tuesday.The maker of automotive...

With about half of the nearly $200 million they need, UCF and Osceola County officials said Tuesday that they are confident they can quickly build a state-of-the-art research facility in Kissimmee to create "smart" sensors.
Supporters say the...

When Orange County voters go to the polls in November, they'll be deciding some key issues that could significantly change the way county elections are held, and also restrict citizens from making their own changes to the county's government charter.One...

It’s been a while, City Manager Randy Knight noted, since Winter Park raised its property taxes.
“The millage rate of 4.0923 is the same millage rate we’ve had now for six years,” Knight told city commissioners during the July 28 commission meeting at...

TALLAHASSEE -- The year-long fight over imposing earned-sick leave requirements on businesses in Orange County is cranking back up.
The Florida Legislature passed a sick-leave bill last spring which blocks local governments from enacting sick-leave...

TALLAHASSEE – Florida has a public health motivation for imposing paid sick-leave mandates on private employers, a task force created by state lawmakers was told Tuesday.
The Florida Legislature battled last spring over local governments’ attempts to...

TALLAHASSEE – The Legislature could be cracking down on politicians who opt to run for office without ever moving into the cities, counties or even school districts they represent.
The Senate’s Ethics and Elections Committee on Monday passed a bill (SB...

A two-word change proposed to one of the nation's first online laws has triggered a battle between law enforcement and Internet libertarians.
On one side, top law enforcers for nearly every state, including Florida, are calling on Congress to change a...

UPDATED: Bills that would allow school districts to open in mid or early August look dead, now that the House education committee failed today to take up the proposal by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Yalaha.
Metz's bill would have allowed districts to open...

SunRail commuter trains won't start running through the Orlando area for at least another year, but already some Seminole County officials envision extending the system to Orlando Sanford International Airport.
That would mean a traveler could someday...

After celebrating her birthday Monday night, Suzanne Blumenauer returned to her home near Winter Park to discover her pool fractured, empty and sinking into the ground.
"I must be dreaming," Blumenauer said. "I didn't know what to...

Seminole County is planning to fill two frustrating gaps in the 23-mile Cross Seminole Trail, allowing cyclists to travel all the way from Lake Mary to Orlando by connecting to Orange County's Cady Way Trail.
In downtown Oviedo, there's a gap of nearly...